Top Gun star Val Kilmer dies aged 65

The actor, who went on to starring roles as Batman and Jim Morrison, has passed away from pneumonia, according to his daughter.

Actor Val Kilmer has died at age 65 from pneumonia. Picture: Getty Images

American actor Val Kilmer, who was first propelled to fame in the 1980s with Top Gun and went on to starring roles as Batman and Jim Morrison, has died at age 65, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The cause of death was pneumonia, his daughter Mercedes Kilmer told the Times. She said he had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and later recovered.

Originally a stage actor, Kilmer got his start on the big screen with Cold War spoof Top Secret! in 1984.

Kilmer in 1986 hit Top Gun. Picture: Getty Images

Kilmer in 2011. Picture: Getty Images

Two years later, he gained fame as the cocky, if mostly silent aviator Iceman in Top Gun, playing a rival to Tom Cruise’s Maverick.

A versatile actor whose career spanned decades, Kilmer got a shot at leading man roles in Oliver Stone’s The Doors and took a turn as the masked Gotham vigilante in Batman Forever, playing Bruce Wayne after Michael Keaton and before George Clooney.

Kilmer was the youngest person ever accepted to New York’s fabled Juilliard school and longed to make serious films. But he found himself in a series of schlocky blockbusters and expensive flops in the early 2000s.

Chastened by a decade or more of low-budget movies, he was mounting a comeback in the 2010s with a successful stage show about Mark Twain that he hoped to turn into a film when he was struck by cancer.

Kilmer with son Jack in 2018. Picture: Getty Images

Val, a documentary about his stratospheric rise and later fall in Hollywood that showed him rasping for air, premiered at the Cannes film festival in 2021.

Kilmer recently returned to movie theatres in 2021 with a cameo reprising his role as Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick, the long-awaited sequel to the 1986 hit.

AFP